Why Coleen Garcia already has a bridal glow

Coleen Garcia is engaged to be married to Billy Crawford — but not until next year in a no-frills union with family and friends on the beach. She’s also booked with projects to boot. So where is her glow coming from?

BiCol fans will tell you it’s because it has been a long time coming. “Billy had the ring for 19 months. I guess I was the indecisive one, the one who wasn’t ready,” Coleen reveals to the STAR.

The two met as co-hosts on Showtime and became an item in 2014. In January of last year, after four years of doing Showtime, she left the noontime show to focus on her acting career and it wasn’t in vain. It changed the pace of Coleen’s life — and the dynamic of their relationship. “He has a hard time standing up for himself. I try to be there for him and teach him how to not let people take advantage of him,” she says of Billy.

On top of that, they individually endured challenges that put each other’s priorities to the test late last year. Emerging as better people, it got Coleen thinking. “I figured it’s possible to both take care of yourself and someone else. It’s possible to pursue your dreams and still have a stable personal life. Back then, I thought that I had to choose between the two. After all that’s happened, I refuse to believe that I have to choose. I have to at least try to keep both. I felt like I was ready to get married, and when Billy found out that I was, I found out that he had been ready all along.”

Coleen the actress

Looks may have gotten her through the door as a commercial model (remember her Nestea commercial as heartthrob Matina?), but she has always been determined to define herself as an actress. Even while doing Showtime, Coleen notably starred in Gino Santos’ Cinemalaya entry #Y and box office hit Ex With Benefits with Derek Ramsay.

This year, she has expanded her repertoire with Chris Martinez’s action comedy Extra Service. Coleen made her ABS-CBN primetime return as the antagonist to Kim Chiu and Gerald Anderson in Ikaw Lang Ang Iibigin while filming a Star Cinema movie with Xian Lim — “something very different from what I have already done before,” is just about all that she can reveal about the project for the time being. She’s also about to start working on another undisclosed film. She sums up her game plan: “My aim is longevity and it has to be done with patience. I’ve been choosing my projects carefully. It’s about being better than you were in your last project.”

Versatility, too, is of the essence. Coleen is no stranger to being typecast with her baby-face looks. “It’s an advantage and a disadvantage. Even in a role, my looks are what people first see,” she admits. Her current roles are polar opposites; she resorts to the quick change makeup can bring, not just for her looks but also her mind frame the moment she enters the set. A swipe of lipstick does wonders. “In the movie with Xian, I am the complete opposite of my character in Ikaw Lang Ang Iibigin. There are days when I take the kontrabida character to that set, and the director reminds me that I have to tone it down,” she shares with a laugh. “To step it up in Ikaw Lang Ang Iibigin, I have been using this deep-wine matte lipstick, Hot Stuff by Happy Skin, from their collaboration with Preview magazine,” she says, finishing up the last of the limited-edition lippie before she moves on to the skincare-in-makeup brand’s line of liquid lipsticks in search of a dupe. “I’m not a makeup person but with the nature of my job, I can’t do less, so I have to use better products. I use all-natural products on my skin. I go for a light feel and finish with skincare benefits. I love that Happy Skin cares for my skin while making me look good even when I end up taping for hours.”

Coleen the bride-to-be

In Happy Skin’s first bridal-inspired makeup collection is a milky pink gel nail polish shade named Bridechilla, which pretty much describes Coleen.

“She’s the epitome of looking so fresh and beautiful, even if it’s not her wedding day,” says Rissa Trillo, Happy Skin’s co-founder (with Jacqe Gutierrez), on choosing Coleen as the bridal collection’s face. “She likes to take care of herself and when you get to talk to her, she is intelligent and has causes she believes in. That’s the kind of woman the Happy Skin woman is.”

The country’s top wedding photographer Pat Dy is used to future brides, even celebrities, coming to him with nerves when they’re ready to immortalize their big day; he warms them up with his natural friendliness. For the Happy Skin bridal collection shoot, Coleen surprised him: “She was super chill! She was even game to try new poses.”

How Coleen keeps it all together is no act. She spills her wisdom: “Collaboration is key. Trust and have faith,” she says. “Some have entire concepts and specific wants in their minds, but if you’re going to hire certain people, it’s best to let them do their job. I carefully selected my team because of what they can do and because we jive with each other. I’m not going to get too involved. I gave them my pegs, but I just let them do their job. Too much input won’t give them freedom to do what they are good at, you’ll just suppress their creativity.”

Billy is not spared from wedding plans, either. “They say it’s the bride’s day, but I stress how important it is that it’s our celebration, our milestone. I want it to be very ‘us.’ He has his duties and responsibilities.”

She and Billy have decided to tie the knot on the beach. “Simple, nothing overwhelming,” she says of the overarching theme, which dictates the direction of her beauty look and her entourage’s. “As minimal as possible. I want to keep it natural. I don’t want that sticky feeling, I don’t want my makeup melting in the middle of the day.” She admits that even Billy finds her most beautiful “always in the most candid moments.”

Minimal makeup means having your best skin so there is less to cover up. Coleen is doubling up on the SPF and moisturizer to keep her skin spot-free, even-toned and firm.

“No big braso on my wedding day” — that’s her biggest concern and she says she’s making good progress. She won’t be fitting for a gown until October anyway, when she feels her weight and size will be at their best.

Coleen has always been fit, but a change in perception is what’s easing her not only into the gown of her dreams: “The main thing in my preparation is that I stopped eating to get skinny. Before, when I went to the gym, I’d lift heavy weights and my trainer would let me eat pretty much anything I wanted. Whenever I have a shoot, that’s when I trim down and only eat chicken or fish and vegetables every single day, without taste whatsoever. What I do now is I just eat healthy every day. Eating healthy doesn’t mean eating to lose weight. A lot of healthy food will still make you gain weight, but it’s surprising that this approach works better. I feel better and I’ve lost the weight I wanted to lose on my arms. I don’t feel like I’m trying so hard. I want to glow not just on my wedding day but every single day leading to it and after.”

Carrying on Happy Skin’s tradition of giving back since its first celebrity collaboration with Kris Aquino in 2013, Coleen is donating a portion of sales from the bridal collection to Hospicio de San Jose, where she celebrated her 23rd birthday in 2015. “I chose them because I have a personal relationship already with some of the children there and we have a bond, too,” says Coleen. “A lot of the kids I’ve come to know there have a disability or a condition, but every time a visitor or help arrives, you can see how happy they are.”

The wedding, the bigger projects — they were never the goal. “It is a new beginning in my life that I’m preparing for. I want to live lighter, be more positive.”

Big Day beauty, every day: Happy Skin’s eight-piece Bridal Makeup collection allows easy touch-ups for brides and allows you to recreate that coveted wedding day glow every day with two new matte lipstick shades in sepia and nude pink, two liquid matte lipstick shades in pink mauve and pink brown, two new 10-free gel polish colors in milky pink and medium pink, a click-type highlighter pen, and a blush compact.

By popular demand: Bridal beauty by happy skin

A lot of women don’t have a retouch kit to turn to on their wedding day, when they feel they’re most beautiful. We thought, how about the “happily ever after” part? How do they recreate that look without a need for a professional makeup artist? This bridal collection is really about being able to give women that glow they had from their wedding day, every day,” says Rissa.

The collection is about Happy Skin giving back to their fans, from social media-savvy consumers who are new to makeup to celebrity makeup artists who both want that coveted wedding day glow. For bridal makeup, a look that’s fresh and natural is top of mind so the eight-piece collection is all about recreating this. Adding to existing product offerings are four new longer-lasting lippie shades (crayon type mattes in sepia and nude pink and liquid lipsticks with a wand applicator in pink mauve and pink brown) and two new 10-free gel polish colors (milky pink and medium pink). The collection includes two new products that make application as well as touch-ups fuss-free. There’s a click-type highlighter pen that “dispenses the perfect amount of highlighter so you already know how much to put on your cheekbones, nose bridge and Cupid’s bow,” describes Rissa. “Because it’s liquid and not powder, it really gives that coveted natural dewy finish.” A blush comes in a brand-new compact with its own brush. “We strived hard to find a pink that looks like a flushed glow,” Rissa says of the blush. “When you wear it, people won’t think na ‘Ay, naka blush siya.’”

As with all of the brand’s offerings, everything in the bridal-inspired line has skincare benefits. The blush is infused with Japanese cherry blossom extract for hydration and neem leaf to prevent breakouts. Yes, I Dew! Fresh Glow Highlighter Pen in Pearl has tangerine peel extract to help illuminate the skin even when the makeup comes off. All of Happy Skin’ s matte lippies and liquid matte lippies contain cupuaçu butter for matte lips that won’t chap; crucial when it’s time to kiss the bride. The star of the show, after all, is the bride and her beauty.

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Purchase P3,000 worth of Happy Skin products (with at least one product from the bridal collection) from Aug. 1 to Sept. 30, 2017 and get a chance to win a pair of golden South Sea pearl earrings from Jewelmer.

The Happy Skin Bridal Collection is now available at all Beauty Bar, Rustan’s and The SM Store, as well as in Happy Skin stores at Alabang Town Center, Glorietta 3, Greenbelt 5, Power Plant Mall, SM Aura Premier, SM Mall of Asia, Robinsons Place Manila, Mega Fashion Hall, Robinsons Magnolia, UP Town Center, TriNoma, SM North EDSA, SM City Clark, SM City Pampanga, and SM City Cebu. Visit http://www.happyskincosmetics.com/stores for a full list of Happy Skin’s counters. Shop online at happyskincosmetics.com and zalora.com.ph. Follow on Instagram @happyskin_ph and on facebook.com/happyskincosmetics for updates and share your Happy Skin selfies with the hashtag #HappySkinGetThatGlow and #HappySkinBeauty.